Villas On The Hudson

New York: Appleton & Company, 1860. First edition. Hardcover. Orig. brown cloth front cover lettered in gilt. Very good. Oblong folio,. Unpaginated. 34 x 48.5 cm. Preface leaf, contents leaf and 31 photolithographic plates, lightly tinted, apparently by stencil, framed and titled in gold and 20 lithograph floor plans. This is the first major work executed with photolithogrpahic plates in the United States. The success of photolithography was highly unpredictable, but this was one of the more successful experiments in comparison to Pouncy s Dorsetshire photographically illustrated (London & Dorchester, 1857) where the plates were more heavily retouched by hand. (TRUTHFUL LENS 171 & 132). Plates present plans and brown and green stencil tinted views of thirty large villas, each identified as to place, owner and architect. Includes the work of architects Gervaise Wheeler, J. W. Martens, T. R. Jackson, Detlef Lienau, J. E. Burke, A. J. Davis, T. W. Wall, L. A. Gouch and H. Engebert. Most of the houses were photographed just after completion and before planting; some in nouveau riche splendor. HITCHCOCK 1275. REESE 19th CENTURY AMERICAN COLOR PLATE BOOKS. No. 62. Rebacked, binding tight, plates clean, toning to some plans mostly in the rear at lower margins.